H. A. R. Gibb
Sir H. A. R. Gibb | |
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Born | Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb 2 January 1895 Alexandria,Egypt |
Died | 22 October 1971 Shipston-on-Stour,Warwickshire,England | (aged 76)
Nationality | Scottish |
Spouse |
Helen Jessie Stark
(m.1922; died 1969) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Influences | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | History |
Institutions | |
Notable students | Wilfred Cantwell Smith[1] |
Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen GibbFBA(2 January 1895 – 22 October 1971), known asH. A. R. Gibb,[2]was a Scottish historian andOrientalist.[3]
Early life and education
[edit]Gibb was born on Wednesday, 2 January 1895, inAlexandria,Egypt, to Alexander Crawford Gibb, the son of John Gibb of Gladstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and Jane Ann Gardner ofGreenock,Scotland. His father died in 1897, following which his mother took up a teaching position in Alexandria. Hamilton returned to Scotland for his formal education at the age of five: first, four years of private tuition, after which he started at theRoyal High School, Edinburghin 1904, staying until 1912. His education was focused onclassics,though it included French, German, andphysical sciences.In 1912, Hamilton matriculated atUniversity of Edinburgh,joining the new honours program inSemitic languages(Hebrew,Arabic,andAramaic). Hamilton's mother died in 1913 while he was studying in his second year at university. He had two brothers, Euston Gibb and Archibald Gibb.(family knowledge)
Military service
[edit]DuringWorld War I,Gibb broke off his studies at theUniversity of Edinburghto serve for theRoyal Artilleryof the United Kingdom in France from February 1917 and for several months in Italy as acommissioned officer.He was commissioned at the age of 19.
He was awarded a "war privilege"undergraduate Master of Arts(MA) because of his service until theArmistice of 11 November 1918.
Academic career
[edit]After the war Gibb studied Arabic atSOAS University of London,gaining hispostgraduateMA in 1922.[4]His MA thesis, published later by theRoyal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Irelandas a monograph, was on theMuslim conquest of Transoxiana.
From 1921 to 1937 Gibb taught Arabic literature at the then School of Oriental Studies, guided by ProfessorThomas Arnold,becoming a professor there in 1930.[5]During this time he was an editor of theEncyclopaedia of Islam.[4]Among his students was the British Arabist and Reader in Arabic,James Heyworth-Dunne.[6]In 1937 Gibb succeededDavid Samuel MargoliouthasLaudian Professor of Arabicwith a Fellowship atSt John's College, Oxford,where he stayed for eighteen years.[4]
In 1955, Gibb became the James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and University Professor atHarvard University.[4][5]He became director of the Center for Middle East Studies in 1957, and retired in 1963.[7]
H. A. R. Gibb was one of the trustees of theE. J. W. GibbMemorial, an organisation which since 1905 has published theGibb Memorial Series.
Research
[edit]Gibb worked in three areas, Arabic literature and language, Islamic history and institutions, and Islam. AfterThe Arab Conquests in Central Asia,his first major work wasArabic Literature – An Introduction(1926). His most important work on Islam wasModern Trends in Islam(1947) andMohammedanism: An Historical Survey(1949), later republished asIslam: An Historical Survey.One of his major late works wasStudies on the Civilization of Islam(1962),
Personal life
[edit]Also in 1922 Gibb married Helen Jessie Stark. They had one son, Ian (1923–2005), and one daughter, Dorothy (1926–2006, now Dorothy Greenslade).[4]
Gibb died on 22 October 1971.
Associations
[edit]- Fellow ofBritish Academy,Danish Academy,American Philosophical Society
- Honorary fellow ofAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,Medieval Academy of America
- Member of Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo,Institut d'Egypte(Associate Member),Arab Academy of Damascus(Honorary),Iraqi Academy of Sciences
Bibliography
[edit]- The Arab Conquests in Central Asia(1923), The Royal Asiatic Society.
- Arabic Literature – An Introduction(1926), also (1963), Clarendon Press and (1974), Oxford University Press.
- Ibn Batuta,1304–1377Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-I354,trans. and selected by Gibb, Hamilton Alexander Roskeen (London: Routledge, 1929), (Arabic:Tuhfat al-'anzar fi ghara'ib al-'amsar).
- Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354(1929), translated and selected with an introduction and notes, R. M. McBride.ISBN81-206-0809-7
- Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb(1939), fromArnold J. Toynbee,A Study of History,Part I.CI (b)Annex I,p. 400-02.
- Modern Trends in Islam(1947).
- Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey(1949) retitledIslam: An Historical Survey(1980), Oxford.
- Islamic Society and the Westwith Harold Bowen (vol. 1 1950, vol. 2 1957).
- Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam(1953), edited with J. H. Kramers,Brill.
- The Encyclopaedia of Islam(1954– ), new ed. Edited by a number of leading orientalists, including Gibb, under the patronage of theInternational Union of Academies.Leiden: Brill, along with that edited by J. H. Kramers, andE. Levi-Provençal.
- "Islamic Biographical Literature," (1962) inHistorians of the Middle East,eds.Bernard LewisandP. M. Holt,Oxford U. Press.
- Studies on the Civilization of Islam(1962), Princeton U. Press
- The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades. Extracted and translated from the Chronicle ofibn al-Qalānisi,Luzac & Company, London, 1932.
Citations
[edit]- ^Cameron, Roberta Llewellyn (1997).The Making of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's "World Theology"(PDF)(PhD thesis). Montreal: Concordia University. p. 10.Retrieved26 December2018.
- ^Gibb, H. A. R. (Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen) (1895–1971).National Library of Australia.Accessed 3 June 2013.
- ^Albert Hourani,"Gibb, Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen (1895–1971)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press,2004, accessed 6 August 2008.
- ^abcdeMakdisi, George(1965).Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb.Brill Archive. p. 15.
- ^ab"H.A.R. Gibb,"Great Soviet Encyclopedia,3rd Edition (1970–1979).
- ^Aṣ-Ṣūlī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā(1936).Heyworth-Dunne,James (ed.). "Kitāb al-Awrāq: Ashʻar Awlad al-Khulafaʼ wa Akhbaruhum".E. J. W. Memorial Trust(in Arabic). London: Luzac & Co.: (Preface, p.11).
- ^Lambton, A. K. S. (1972)."Obituary: Sir Hamilton Alexander Roskeen Gibb".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.35(2): 338–345.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00109401.ISSN0041-977X.JSTOR614407.S2CID176797713.
External links
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- 1895 births
- 1971 deaths
- 20th-century British historians
- People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
- Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
- Scottish Arabists
- Scottish orientalists
- Historians of Central Asia
- British Army personnel of World War I
- British expatriates in Egypt
- Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
- Fellows of the British Academy
- Harvard University faculty
- British historians of Islam
- Knights Bachelor
- People from Alexandria
- Royal Artillery officers
- Scottish expatriates in the United States
- Scottish scholars and academics
- Laudian Professors of Arabic
- Arabic–English translators
- Members of Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo